Less than a month later, in Gerik, 15 university students died after their bus crashed into a car and overturned.
These back-to-back tragedies have reignited urgent questions about road safety, vehicle maintenance and enforcement failures.
But what makes them so devastating? FMT takes a look at the science involved and what experts say can be done to prevent them.
The physics behind the collisions
At highway speeds, a fully loaded lorry generates up to 20 times more kinetic energy than a car. The impact is comparable to being hit by a train at 80 km/h, according to road safety expert Law Teik Hua.
“This isn’t just about weight. The force of impact is significantly amplified. When a 40-tonne truck hits a 1.5-tonne car, the force can be more than 26 times greater than a car-to-car collision,” Law, from Universiti Putra Malaysia, told FMT.
Lorries and buses have higher centres of gravity, making them up to three times more likely to tip over, especially during sharp turns.
They also have much bigger blind spots, especially along the sides, rear and front—up to four times larger than those of a car.
“Many road users underestimate how limited a lorry driver’s visibility truly is,” said Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) chairman Wong Shaw Voon.
“If you can’t see the driver’s face in their side or rear mirror, it’s very likely that the driver can’t see you either.”
Driver fatigue, mechanical failures complicate matters
Long-distance truck and bus drivers often work punishing hours, and fatigue could slow reaction time by up to 40%, said Law.
“A fatigued driver in a poorly maintained lorry carrying a maximum load may require 150m or more to stop,” he said when explaining why high-speed read-end collisions have an 80% fatality rate.
Newer braking systems are capable of shortening these stopping distances, said Wong. However, he said these are not always readily available on commercial vehicles.
“Private vehicles tend to get safety technology first. Only later do we see them implemented in lorries and buses,” he said.
Most mechanical failures are preventable
Law said more than 90% of accidents caused by mechanical failure are preventable with proper maintenance.
New technologies like tyre pressure monitoring and brake diagnostics can cut failure rates by up to 60%, he said.
Wong noted that Malaysia has made some progress in vehicle safety, including by adopting UN standards.
“Airbags and seatbelt reminders became mandatory in Malaysia in 2012, ahead of some of our regional peers,” he said.
“We’ve made progress, but there’s still a long way to go when it comes to heavy vehicles.”